PwC: government may have created green tax

PwC: government may have created green tax

PwC partners claim changes to environmental legislation will create a green tax.

George Osborne’s spending review has revealed that revenue generated from
green legislation will now go to the public purse and not recycled back into the
scheme.

PwC climate change partners agree changes to environmental legislation could
create a green tax and increase compliance costs for businesses.

The government announced estimated revenues of £1bn generated from the
legislation, Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), will be put towards supporting
public finances, including spending on environment, rather than recycled into
the scheme as previously announced.

“On the basis that it looks like CRC revenues will be taken from the scheme
by the government, the CRC will operate effectively as a tax on companies taking
part,” said Harry Manisty, environmental tax specialist at PwC.

Henry Le Fleming, carbon policy specialist at PwC, said the scheme was
originally designed to be “revenue neutral” where all money invested was
recycled into the scheme. He believes the changes could “substantially increase
compliance costs” for business.

The CRC requires companies that generally spend £500,000 annually on energy
bills to forecast its future carbon emissions for each financial year and then
pay for these up front. Companies are then entered into a league table which
reveals their emissions levels and their progress. They can then receive a
rebate on the CRC rate they pay, depending on where they are ranked and how much
they have reduced their emissions.

Manistry said the government had hoped to make changes to existing
environmental schemes such as the Climate Change Levy (CCL). When businesses pay
energy bills a certain amount of the revenue is put towards the CCL, effectively
a tax on energy. The government hopes to change the CCL so that it relates to
the carbon content on fuels.

However, Manistry said the government may now face pressure to abandon these
plans to avoid double taxation of carbon for CRC participants.

According to spending review documents the scheme is expected to raise
£3.46bn over the next four fiscal years.

Further reading:

Green
reporting legislation too complex, says watchdog

UK
finance professionals unaware of carbon reduction scheme

Reverse
VAT introduced on carbon trading

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